Apocalypse World: Uni City Chapter 3a

[Hey story-friends. I’ve been hard at work on the next installment of Uni City this weekend. Perhaps a bit too hard at work though. I’m already up to 8 pages in Word and I’m not even on the fourth character yet. So to give everyone a more digestible story I’m going to break it up. After today’s expect a new character’s POV to be posted on Monday, another on Wednesday, and the exciting conclusion of this chapter on Friday. This isn’t an April Fools Day joke, I’m serious about trying this out, so please let me if it works better this way or if I should switch back to putting up chapters all at once. Hope you enjoy!]

MR SUNSET

Mr. Sunset makes his bed and looks at the far end of it. The empty and cold end. He frowns. Knocking at the door almost startles him. He straightens out his coat before telling them to come in.

It’s Missing, the youngest resident of the Library and everyone’s adoptive daughter. “What is it, child?” Mr. Sunset talks like a warm blanket.

“It’s Ba. He’s causing a ruckus in the café. He demands to see you.”

Mr. Sunset rolls his eyes. Ba is a roof farmer who spends all the barter he gets from his wares on Sunset’s girls. This isn’t the first time he’s caused Mr. Sunset and his girl’s trouble. Mr. Sunset grabs his walking stick and nods to Missing to lead the way.

The old café serves as the lobby of and point of purchase for the girls’ services. It’s about the worst place to cause a scene. When Missing and Mr. Sunset descend the stairs Ba is yelling and pointing his fingers while potential customers are shuffling out the door.

Dustwich is the one trying to calm him down. When she sees Mr. Sunset a wave of relief washes over her. “Is there a problem here?”

“A problem?” Ba says “Yeah, there’s a fucking problem. I paid in advance for three weekends with Peppering. That was three weeks ago, you know how many times I’ve seen Peppering?”

Mr. Sunset sighs. He looks at Missing, “Go get Peppering for me, please. She’ll be with Scrib downstairs.” Then he walks to Ba. “Peppering has been very busy. Scrib has employed her since he was promoted by Millions.”

“I don’t give two shits about Scrib. I want what I paid for.”

“Why don’t you have a seat,” Mr. Sunset pulls out an old chair and offers it to Ba. He hesitates for a second and then sits down. “I’ll settle this, Ba. I don’t go back on my word.”

Missing appears at the top of the staircase down to Scrib’s. She waves Mr. Sunset over.

“Fucking better. Thought this was an honest establishment.”

Missing whispers up to Mr. Sunset, “Peppering wants to talk to you.”

He looks over her shoulder and down the flight of stairs. He sees Peppering there looking up at him and frowns again. “I’ll be right back, Ba. Dustwich. Can you get Ba something to drink, please?”

Mr. Sunset wants to object but looks in her eyes and knows it won’t help.

(Seduce or manipulate: 7+2=hit)

“Fine, I’ll give you an extended … vacation from you main services. But now that you’re in the protection line of work, how about you take a regular shift on guard duty for me?”

Peppering holds her hand own to shake. “I can live with that.”

They shake.

Mr. Sunset turns on his heels and walks back upstairs.

“Where are you going?” she says. Mr. Sunset ignores her.

“I’m truly sorry to say this Ba, but Peppering won’t be able to fulfill her contract. I can offer you the service of any of the other girls though.”

“You’re fucking shitting me.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ba puts his drink on the wooden cable spool table beside him. Mr. Sunset noted that he had ordered the most expensive drink on the menu. It looked like Ba might spit in Mr. Sunset’s face for a second or two, but then he brightened and a smiles spread over his face like an acid rainstorm.

“Ok Mr. Sunset. I can pick any other girl for my three weeks?”

“Right.” Mr. Sunset braced himself. He didn’t like that smile.

“Great. I think I’ll take … hm, how about Missing?”

(Sunset reads a person: 7+1=hit)

(What’s your character intending to do?

Beat the shit out of Missing to teach Sunset a lesson)

That’s all Mr. Sunset can handle. “Missing isn’t old enough.”

Ba stands up. He’s a half head taller than Mr. Sunset. “I don’t give a shit how old she is. We made a deal and you broke it. Then you made a counter offer and you’re going to break that too?”

“You’re going to pick someone else or you’re going to leave.”

“You’re going to honor your deal or I’m going to Mr. Millions and get this whole place shut down.”

(Sunset goes aggro: 5+1=miss)

(Choose one:

Missing doesn’t have to comply

Sunset isn’t harmed

Ba doesn’t complain to Millions

He chooses option number 1)

Mr. Sunset swings his walking stick at Ba’s head. Through surprising skill or dumb luck Ba dodges out of the way and grabs the weapon. He wrestles it out of Mr. Sunset’s grip and slams it into his leg.

(1 harm)

Mr. Sunset falls to the ground but several girls step out of the background with makeshift weapons. October is among them. Ba looks around and throws the stick across the room and backs toward the door.

“Fuck you Sunset. I’ll make sure Mr. Millions hears about this. You owe me three week’s of barter you little fuck.” He looks at Missing. “Unless you change your mind about that little whore of yours.”

He walks out and slams the door. The girls rush over to Mr. Sunset and help him up.

“I’m fine,” he says, “it’s not broken.”

Missing hands him his cane. She’s close to crying. He gives her chin a light squeeze. “Don’t worry about me, I’ve had much worse.”

He looks at his stick. “Maybe it’s time we took better precautions. Do we still have that shotgun?”

(Fingers in every pie: 10+2=great hit)

“Yeah, I think so. I’ll go grab it,” Franky says.

“We’re going to need more than that. October, come here.”

She walks up to him. It’s the first time they’ve spoken in almost a week.

“Go downstairs and see if you can convince Scrib to get more weapons for us from Millions’s armory. We’re supposed to be guarding Uni City’s best warrior and we don’t have enough weapons to defend against a farmer.”

October presses her thick lips together. She looks bored more than annoyed.

“Maybe if you let me guard this warrior of ours, like I’ve been asking to.”

Mr. Sunset almost goes off on her, but figures it’s not worth it. “Fine.”